How Lawmakers Negotiated Through Fits and Starts to Strike a Debt-Limit Deal
- Negotiators overcame blowup as deadline for default neared
- Biden call with McCarthy provided pivotal breakthrough
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With roughly two weeks until the US Treasury was going to run out of money to pay the government’s bills, the negotiations in Washington to lift the nation’s debt limit blew up.
It was Friday morning, May 19, and teams representing President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy had convened in an ornate meeting room on the Capitol’s first floor with a view of the National Mall. The House and Senate were out of session, so the Capitol was quieter than usual and the dress was casual.